Holiday Conservation Celebration

Our annual holiday fundraiser, co-hosted with St. Petersburg Audubon Society! Refreshments, book signing, environmental exhibits, awards, silent auction fundraiser, door prizes, and a special guest speaker... Dr. Douglas Tallamy, author of the book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. Please bring goodies to share--snacks, sweets, or nibbles! Also bring your own plate, fork, cup if you can... It will reduce the disposable waste and make this event more "sustainable." Come and bring a friend!

Annual Joint Meeting with St. Pete Audubon

The public is invited to the "Holiday Conservation Celebration," an annual event jointly hosted by the Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society and the St. Petersburg Audubon Society. The event is a fund-raiser for both organizations, which use the proceeds for conservation projects throughout Pinellas County. These include protection of birds and their habitats, promotion of sustainable landscape practices that use native plant species, environmental advocacy, and public education programs focusing on wildlife, nature and sustainable living.

The Holiday Conservation Celebration will take place beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 8, 2009 at Pinellas County Extension, 12520 Ulmerton Road, Largo. The event is sponsored by Pinellas County Extension/IFAS and admission is free. There will be refreshments, exhibits by local environmental groups and government agencies, conservation awards, a silent auction of nature-themed books, crafts, plants, and holiday gift items, door prizes and a special guest speaker, Dr. Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.

Interview with Douglas Tallamy on NPR's "Science Friday"

As a child, Douglas W. Tallamy learned first-hand about the finality of suburban development as practiced today. Having recently moved with his family into a new house in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, he spent his summer days exploring the "wild" places that surrounded him. One of his first discoveries was a small pond where thousands of pollywogs wiggled near its shoreline and he took great delight in watching them grow each day. One day as he watched, a bulldozer crested nearby piles of dirt, and—in an act that has been replicated around the nation millions of times since—proceeded to bury the young toads and all of the other living treasures within the pond.

Tallamy is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, where he has written more than 65 research articles and has taught insect taxonomy, behavioral ecology, and other subjects. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities.

In his free time Tallamy enjoys photography (particularly of insects and birds), hiking and backpacking with his wife in remote places, swimming and canoeing, and teaching young people about the importance of the life forms around them.

Event schedule:
6:30- 7:30 p.m.:
Mix & Mingle – Refreshments – Environmental Exhibits – Bidding on Silent Auction Items
Book signing by Douglas Tallamy: "Bringing Nature Home to Our Gardens"

7:30- 8:00 p.m.:
Welcome – Awards – Door Prizes

8:00- 9:00 p.m.:
Program: Douglas Tallamy on "Bringing Nature Home to Our Gardens"

9:00 p.m.:
Claim Auction Items & Door Prizes, Book signing by Douglas Tallamy